The strategically distributed nature of wind power presents unique challenges. A wind turbine may be located onshore or offshore, it may be subject to a variety of meteorological influences and it should be monitored and controlled in order to provide optimal performance.
A wind turbine is usually connected to a system for Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition (SCADA).
A monitoring and control network is described in EP 0 1531 376 disclosing that a further network for transmission of large amounts of data may be added to an existing control and monitoring network in order to avoid that the high bandwidth requirements of the data interferes or blocks the control and monitoring network. A problem related to the disclosed network is that addition of further high bandwidth requiring applications, such as data monitoring and data analysis either requires an even further network or—even worse—restricts the access time related to critical operations of the network. Even though introducing a further network, the monitoring and control data is still transmitted through the same network.
During service of a wind turbine, the wind turbine is shut down and typically disconnected from the SCADA system for safety reasons, so that service technicians entering the wind turbine can be sure that the wind turbine cannot be operated from outside. However, this disconnection from the SCADA system renders it difficult for the service technicians to obtain information on past performance of the wind turbine.
Hence, an improved wind turbine would be advantageous, and in particular a wind turbine with a more efficient and/or reliable system for obtaining wind turbine information during service would be advantageous.